Nokuthula Mabuza
Durban - Keshnie Mathi was unable to give her son the funeral he deserved when she miscarried six years ago, and she has not come to terms with this.
“I didn’t get a chance to bury my son Aaron, to hold him, or even to see him, although he would have been the size of a grapefruit,” said Mathi, 39, of Johannesburg.
She said she was glad the Pretoria High Court had ruled last week that women who miscarried at 26 weeks or less of pregnancy could now bury their babies. The women would also be issued death certificates on request.
In her ruling, Judge Nomonde Mngqibisa-Thusi said the previous Birth and Death Registration Act (Badra), which declared the remains of the foetus as medical waste, was insensitive.
Mathie, originally from Durban, said the ruling would give moms a chance to hold their babies and put their own feelings to rest.
"It doesn’t matter how many weeks a mother is in during her pregnancy, and whether it was a miscarriage, a stillbirth, or a termination due to illness, every mom should be able to celebrate her baby in any way that she can.”
She said she was also hurt that the health-care workers at the hospital she was admitted were not emotionally supportive.
“It was just a case of ‘you are still young you will have other babies. Moms go through this all the time’. But when I found out that my baby was thrown away like garbage, I was hurt.”
The application in the Pretoria High Court was brought by Sonya Smith of The Voice of The Unborn Baby, and the Catholic Archdiocese of Durban. They challenged the Constitution with regards to the rights of parents who suffered miscarriage before 26 weeks of gestation.
Smith said she first raised the issue in 2012 during a round-table discussion with the deputy-general of the Department of Health.
"I wanted to know if people have the choice to terminate a pregnancy, why don’t they have the choice to decide what should happen with the foetal remains?"
Smith said all parents should have the choice to elect to bury what they already perceive as their prospective child, should they wish. This was irrespective of the cause for the loss.
“Not having the choice is an infringement of the basic human rights of the parents. The right to dignity, privacy, equality and freedom of religion. No rational reason exists why there is a differentiation in treating the consequences of stillbirth on the one hand, and on the other hand those of a pregnancy loss other than a stillbirth. The intensity of the pain felt by both parents who have suffered a loss must be the same.”
Shannon Roach of Angel Mommies, a support group for grieving mothers, said that it was wrong in the first place not to grant mothers this opportunity.
“Instead of babies being snatched away, let them be buried. I am grateful for this ruling and I agree with it 100%. This is the best news I’ve ever received. I’m over the moon.”
According to the reports, Judge Mngqibisa-Thusi has given Parliament a year to reflect the changing circumstances on Badra, that parents be allowed to request death certificates from medical staff to proceed with burials.
Popo Maja, the head of communications and stakeholder management for the Department of Health, said that they would act accordingly.
“The department has always respected the court of law. Therefore, we support the ruling. We will take action once the minister has issued the report on how to amend the circumstances.”
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